Tuesday, August 28, 2012

TF Prime Toys: Vehicon Impressions

I finally opened my Transformers Prime Vehicon toy, since it was my birthday recently. Yeah, I'm old and yeah, I'm a kid. Hahaha. I haven't really come up with a structure for toy reviews, so I'm kinda making up categories for right now. Anyway, here are a few impressions of the figure.

Look
I don't know what's NOT to like about the look. In car mode, it looks angular, menacing and sleek. It might be a bit small, but it works with a scout/troop type robot. The robot form is sleek as well, and doesn't have a lot of kibble. It looks like the show, and I think it looks a bit better than that. His proportions are also really good. No ape arms, tiny head of scrawny legs.

Articulation
Vehicon has great inward arm articulation, and the shoulders are very posable. The hips are pretty good, as they are the standard ball joint. The knees bend some, but not fully back. The feet are stable, but not really able to be put in different positions. The wrists only go up and down, but they get the job done when combining with the arm articulation. The outward arm movements are bad, and there is no waist articulation. The head moves a bit, but not too much. All in all, it's ok, I would like a bit better.

Transformation
Wow. I really like transforming the Vehicon. The whole top of the car folds up and becomes the bottom of the legs, storing them away. It's not the prettiest, but it looks fine from the front, and more importantly, NO KIBBLE! The front of the sides of the car are just sitting there, so there is a bit of kibble on the legs. Compared to most car-formers, it is amazingly small. The back panel of the car pulls out and brings the head with it, then folds to the back. You don't even see it from the front, and on the back it looks fine. To me, it is amazing how little kibble the Vehicon has in bot mode. Whoever designed this should get a raise. I'm serious, it's that good.

Weapons
The gun that it comes with isn't that great, but it gets points for being able to attach to several places on the figure. It can hold the handle of the gun or be mounded to its arm, as if the hand transformed into it. You can plug the handle into the shoulder, or attach is to the kibble near the leg as if it were holstered. In car (alt) form, it can be plugged into the back of the side, or attached onto the side of the hood. It might not look pretty, but great versatility with the Vehicon, and that matters more to me in this instance.

So was it worth the money I paid for it? In short, yes. I had to pay a bit more than retail ($20 from a fellow fan), but that is to be expected. Hopefully the "revision" case that a future wave has with 2 Vehicons is real so more people can get this. It is rare and unfortunately scalpable, but it is a great figure.